As in most of the world, in Australia outhouses used to be pretty common.
The underside of the seat was a very popular place of residence for the Australian variant of the Black Widow, known there as “The Red Back”.
My Australian friends tell me it was a relatively common occurrence, while seated on the throne, that the man of the house would have certain dangling bits of his anatomy bitten by a Red Back.
Apparently, when this happened, the excruciating pain left no doubt at all that he had been bitten.
Gives whole new meaning to the experience of hanging out.
Lots of species do, usually the really cosmopolitan species like peregrine falcons and bracken. The falcons of course travel by flying. The ferns disperse via spores. The spiders likely disperse by a similar method to the ferns, by sending the juveniles skywards.
However there’s a bit of a debate about whether redbacks are native to Australia. They only show up 100 years after European settlement, initially at a seaport. Added to that they are rarely if ever found away from human structures. So there’s some debate about when and how they arrived on the island.
Are you serious? I guess they won’t bother you until you’re walking around barefoot one day and accidentally step on one of its legs and it bites filling your blood with poisonous venom. I wouldn’t want to share my living space with such a creature.
First, I never walk around in the basement or the yard in bare feet.
Second, Black Widows are rarely found anywhere where they are likely to be stepped on; they live in webs in sheltered places and cavities. If you stick an unprotected hand or foot into a dark cavity, then you are a prime contender for a Darwin Award.
Third, Widows only bite if you really make an effort to disturb them; they invariably try to get away or play dead. They will bite only as a last resort. If you get bitten, it is usually because you didn’t allow them to escape.
And fourth, my house and yard is full of all kinds of other spiders; they all act to keep each other in check. They also keep the bugs down.
Fifth, I guess you wouldn’t want me to tell you about the permanent residents I have on my bedroom ceiling? Or how I keep the roaches down in my kitchen???
Back to my original post; if you leave any kind of creature alone, whether that be spider or human, it will leave you alone.
Most people who get bitten by widows are doing really dangerous and stupid things like picking up garbage cans and lawn chairs. Widows absolutely love the angles in plastic objects of that sort, and because such objects are commonly left outside and because the only way to pick them up is by sticking an unprotected hand into the angle, people get bitten.
And the idea that if you leave any animal alone it will leave you alone is simply too ignorant for words. Anyone who has had any experience at all with real animals knows how silly such a suggestion is.
I don’t know, but I would guess so. It seems unlikely that an animal would find its way to NZ but bypass Australia. Though I guess that it’s possible that it arrived unassisted via South America.
I cannot see the pictures (photobucket blocked). But one thing with black widow spiders is their webs are stronger then other spiders. So feel the web, if it feels different than the regular house spiders web it is probably a widow.
I dunno. The surfer who was minding his own business a few days ago off the coast of California and got mauled by a shark may be have something to say about that.
